Fit for Princes. (Princes Corned Beef)

Member Name: GillMN

Product:	Princes Corned Beef
Date:	08/10/08 (133 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Stores well. Cheap. Tasty.

Disadvantages: Opening the tins can be dangerous. High salt and fat content.

Princes Corned Beef is a really good standby to keep in your store cupboard.

It costs about £1.40 for a 340g tin. I've just read the tin and it has a 5 year shelf life! Pretty good hey? I usually try to get them when there is a BOGOF offer on.

It's called Corned beef because of the 'corns' of salt that were used to preserve it originally. I assume they were called corns of salt because they are the same shape as corncobs.

The salt and the fat content are both fairly high, so whilst the meat is delicious it wouldn't be a good idea to eat this daily.

The corned beef itself comes from Brazil. Princes' distribution centre is in Liverpool. The address is on the can in case you have any queries or complaints.

The can is recyclable steel and a bit of an odd shape. it's rectangular but slopes in towards the top. I think this is to make it easier to get the meat out of the can.

There is a key to the can which really needs to be changed to a ring pull. The sides of the can are very sharp and it's very easy to cut your fingers on them if you are trying to get the stuck corned beef out. Some cans have ring pulls but most don't, I don't know why. Even the ring pulls don't make it easy and I usually rely on an ordinary can opener.

If you do use the key and the corned beef comes out succesfully, you can use the can to place over the unused meat in the fridge to stop it drying out.

It is possible to buy Princes reduced salt Corned Beef. I tried it but quite honestly it was a waste of money because it didn't taste of anything. My daughter's dog enjoyed it though.

Princes is probably not the cheapest Corned Beef but it seems to me to be better tasting and less fatty than the cheaper brands. Fray Bentos does a similar product but I haven't bought that for years because there was always unidentifiable bits of animal in it. (Is it still in production?)

To make the best toasted sandwich (in my humble opinion!), make sure the can is chilled so that you can control the size of the slices. Make a sandwich using thin slices of corned beef and grate or crumble some Cheshire cheese on top. Put the open sandwich under the grill first to melt the cheese. When the cheese starts to melt, put the top on the sandwich and toast as normal. Absolutely delicious! (I've just eaten one and I am seriously thinking about having another but I am being good.)

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Now, the nutritional stuff!

100g of Princes Corned Beef contains.
Energy - 930 kj/223 kcal
Protein - 24.8 g
Carbohydrate - 0.5 g
Fat - 13.5 g

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Ingredients
Cooked Beef (84%),
Beef (12%)
Salt
Sugar
Preservative: Sodium Nitrate


It's great in sandwiches, salads, corned beef hash (of course!), added to soups and as an extra topping on pizzas.

What more could you ask?

Summary: A versatile store cupboard standby.